Please take a few moments to read through the following, it is not as daunting as it looks and encompasses a lot of Frequently Asked Questions. Hopefully it will give you an insight into how we would like the forum to run. Above all though, welcome to the forum and have fun 8)

1.
Posting links to other websites which rival http://www.blades-uk.com i.e. selling the same or similar products is prohibited. This includes links posted on the general forum and within individual’s signatures and profiles. Reason for this is simple - Blades-UK is a business and naturally, has its own business interests in mind. Exceptions to the rule would be sword manufacturers websites i.e. http://www.casiberia.com and any other non-related links.

2.
The discussion of illegal items such as throwing stars, cane swords etc. are not permitted and any such discussions will be deleted.

3.
The abuse of forum members will not be tolerated. Please treat each other with due respect.

4.
The posting of offensive or illegal material in forms of text of graphic are not permitted. If a post is deemed offensive by other members of the forum or indeed distasteful, it will be removed.

5.
The forum is split into four categories:
a.
Blades UK – all content within is with reference to Blades-UK as a company and the products it sells i.e. customer reviews, site feedback etc. This area is heavily moderated. Please keep on topic.
b.
Sword Forums – all content within is with reference specifically about swords, weapons and martial arts etc. This area is heavily moderated. Please keep on topic.
c.
General Chat – this area is for like-minded people to talk about similar hobbies, interests etc. This area is lightly moderated. Please try to keep on topic as much as possible.
d.
Regulars Area – this area is for anything off topic i.e. jokes and funnies. Also an area for moderators and admin to split off topic posts from the above (A, B, C) forums. Each category is self-explanatory. Area also contains For Sale & Wanted section (see below for more details). This area is very lightly moderated. The need to stay on topic is not a necessity.

6.
The For Sale & Wanted forum rules – this forum is for users to sell their unwanted items or likewise, post a wanted advert. However, users cannot sell weapons through this forum mainly due to the laws regarding the selling of items such as swords and knives to under 16’s but also again to do with Blades-UK’s business interests. If you would like to sell your second hand sword or knife, please contact admin@blades-uk.com quoting the item and the price you want to sell it for. You will then be asked to send the item to Blades-UK. Your item will appear on the website. Blades-UK will add 10% to your asking price.

7.
Please refrain from linking directly to images from other websites unless you have sole permission from the owner. There are several websites for hosting images for free including http://www.imageshack.us and http://www.imagehosting.us that are very easy to use and even provide you with the phpBB code and link.

8.
The private messaging facility is, for the foreseeable future, disabled due to abuse of the system in the past. However, should the system be reactivated, all the same rules apply.

9.
Please try to avoid writing in CAPS. Please also be sensible with the formatting of your text. This forum is not the Oxford University English Language Forum – you do not have to write in perfect English! It is not a crime to have bad grammar and spelling. However, that said, please do not post in text speak as it makes it vry ard 2read sumtimes wot peeps r tryin 2say. You will see some minor foul language on the forum. We accept that certain slang is now a part of our culture and foul language is used more frequently, however you will find that your posts may be edited or deleted should they be deemed over the top. The forum does have word filters in place, which will filter out most ‘hardcore’ swear words. Any attempts to ‘beat’ the word filters will be treated as a breach of the forum rules.

10.
Any sort of racial or religious prejudice is not acceptable on this forum. Any users who consistently make such comments will have their accounts suspended.

11.
Our admin and moderator teams are extremely friendly, and despite popular belief, we don’t bite! They are in place to ensure the forum and its users are adhering to the rules. Please treat them with respect and in return you will be treated equally. Abuse or arguments with any of the admin or moderators decisions or actions made, will not be looked on kindly. The rules are fairly straightforward, 99.9% don’t have a problem accepting and sticking to them however there is always that 0.1% that will have a problem with admin, moderators and the rules. That 0.1% - your stay on the forum will be short lived.

12.
Flaming and trolling is discouraged and the moderators and admin will deal with any such activities. Continuous flaming and trolling offenders will see their accounts suspended.

13.
Violent behaviour is not tolerated. This includes violent behaviour towards forum users or just general violent text in general i.e. stories of cruelty to animals (yes we’ve banned sick people before because of this). Whether you were joking or not, its not funny, its not big and its not clever.

14.
Blades-UK forum is a vehicle for both serious/professional and not so serious/amateur sword collectors and enthusiasts. You will find a great deal of knowledgeable and experienced people amongst our users and you will also find the not so experienced, more casual sword collectors. There are other sword forums that are strictly for the serious and experienced swords collector – that is not how our community works. We are much more laid back. We will not hold judgement on your choice of purchases as certain other forums perhaps would. Nor will we hold issue with you if you don’t know what you’re doing or talking about with regards to swords. In such cases, we will try to educate you if you so wish. However, admission to dangerous behaviour such as waving your sword around in public places – which is clearly stupid and irresponsible behaviour, will be frowned upon and expect to receive a bit of ‘stick’ and told what an idiot you are!

15.
Please do not repeat post. This means no double posting – there is an edit button on your posts, if after posting you wanted to add something else, please use the edit button, don’t make another post. This also refers to making new threads when old ones exist of the same subject nature. The forum has a search feature that enables you to search the forum for topics via keywords. Your question may have already been answered!

Other items to consider:

Gaunt wrote:Now we've been fairly lax on our Signature rules, but there starting to get out of hand

From now on a signature will not exceed 150k, this is still a generous size while hopefully not caining our lower connection users

Avatars should not exceed 80kb

also not everyone is blessed with the speeds of broadband! So in order to be nice to our 56k peeps, and also to cut down on Loz's bandwidth, we need to impose some restrictions.

Signatures
Please can you ensure that signature images are no bigger then 155 pixels high by 450 wide. It is not a problem to have both text and images within your signature. Signatures are already limited to the ammount of text characters you can use.

Avatars
Avatars are already restricted to 100 pixels by 100 pixels by the forum as default. However, it is possible to link to off site images for your avatar. These are not controlled or restricted by default on the forum. However, please keep off site avatars 150 pixels by 150 pixels or smaller.

Any signature images or avatars which are deemed too large by the admin/mods will be removed. Please also refrain from using large (KB) animated GIF files.

Many thanks

Adurul wrote:The Admin now have their own usergroup. So if anyone has any concerns/wishes to speak with an Admin then they can find out who to talk to on the Usergroups menu at the top, right of the page.

Same goes for Moderators, which has been in implementation for a while now.

Cheers, Adurul.

Logan wrote:Posting images is easy There are several ways to do this.

If you've found an image on the web and would like to post it, please DO NOT link directly to the image. Instead, save the image to your computer and either host the image on your own webspace or use ImageShack (see below) - although technically you must have the owners permission.

Once you've hosted your image, you need to take its URL e.g. http://www.myspace.co.uk/Me.jpg copy it, and paste it into your post. You then highlight the URL and click the 'Img' button. This will prefix your image URL with ''. Click submit and your done (H)

ImageShack will make your life easier. It practically does all the above for you. Its dead easy to use, simply click the browse button, select the image on your computer you wish to upload and hit the upload button.

It'll take you to another screen with the phpBB forum code already created for you! Just select the one you want, copy it and paste the whole lot into your post. Done (H)

The forum and the company are not connected, if you need to contact us about your order please see http://www.blades-uk.com/contact.php or for a more efficient response see your email receipt and contact the correct department.